Here at Work in Startups, we’re on a mission to help talented jobseekers find the startup job of their dreams. To support this, we’re running a blog series shining a light on people’s early startup careers, in the hope that it will inspire jobseekers (like you!) and help talent make more informed decisions about their […]

Early Career Spotlight: Luke Kock at CleanCloud

Here at Work in Startups, we’re on a mission to help talented jobseekers find the startup job of their dreams. To support this, we’re running a blog series shining a light on people’s early startup careers, in the hope that it will inspire jobseekers (like you!) and help talent make more informed decisions about their future. Follow us as we interview startup employees across the country and find out more about their backgrounds, motivations, current roles and future aspirations!

This week we’re interviewing Luke Kock, Business Development Manager at CleanCloud, the leading Point of Sales software, apps and online ordering service used by dry cleaners and laundry services worldwide. As one of the fastest growing SaaS companies in the world, they were named 2019 SaaS Awards winner and look set for big things! We can’t wait to see what 2020 has in store for this exciting startup!

Hi Luke! Can you tell me a bit about your background?

I was born and raised in London and went to Warwick University to read PPE in 2015. When I graduated, I was definitely the odd one out from my cohort in the sense that I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Most people had a graduate job lined up, but I didn’t as I wanted to try a few different things. Post-graduation I took an intensive coding course and tutored to earn money. Learning to code was my first segway into the techy, startup world and really got me thinking. I then went travelling for a few months and did a remote internship for a Dutch startup in Bali. This exposed me to the whole world of startup jobs and I could really see the value of my work. I was making a difference even though I was an intern and only just beginning my tech career. After that, I knew I wanted to work in a startup – just not remotely, so I applied for jobs via startup job boards (including on Work In Startups of course!) and CleanCloud approached me for a Business Development role! The rest is history!

Wow, thank you for sharing! What led you to join a startup in the first instance?

Definitely seeing the value of my work. Because CleanCloud is still pretty small, everything I do has a direct impact on how well we do, which is exciting! The second reason I joined a startup is that I wanted to learn how to run a business. I want to found my own company in the future, so where better to learn than at a startup? I’m seeing how a new business works: the ups and downs and the struggles, and this is invaluable experience. At a big company, it’s difficult to know what’s actually going on and have a holistic overview of how the company is doing. You don’t have this problem at a startup!

What led you to join CleanCloud in particular?

I wanted to work in something in technology, and CleanCloud seemed like the perfect fit. I’m enthusiastic about tech making people’s lives easier and CleanCloud does just that. Dry cleaning is an industry that hasn’t been disrupted by technology yet, so that’s what we’re on a mission to do and we’re making dry cleaners’ lives easier in the process. Not all startups have super-cool, crazy ideas, but the ones that are successful are the ones that identify a clear pain-point in an industry and provide a solution for it.

And there are a lot of signs that we’re going to be successful! Firstly, we are funded by Angel investors, seed funding and earlier this year a large US payment processing company acquired a minority stake in the business. Secondly, we’re a hard-working, dedicated bunch! We’re committed to our mission and want CleanCloud to succeed.

I also joined CleanCloud because I was really impressed by one of the Co-Founders and CEO, John Buni. CleanCloud is his second business! Before this, he founded a company called Tailor Made London that was the first tailoring business to implement body-scan technology. He has a knack for seeing how traditional industries can be disrupted with technology and I was inspired by his entrepreneurialism.

Do you think you’ll always work in startups?

Hmmm, difficult to say. I definitely think I’ll end up in a startup in the long run, and I’ll spend most of my career working in startups. However, I could potentially see myself working at a bigger company at some point. Big companies provide a lot of technical training, which could prove super useful – especially given that I want to found my own company one day. However, they don’t necessarily win on pay (unless in law or finance, of course) or experience. I think my heart will always be in startups at the end of the day.

My end goal is definitely to found my own startup, and I know that the senior people here would mentor me and help me out – that’s what’s so great about CleanCloud. They have invested in me so far and I truly feel supported.

What makes the CleanCloud a great place to work?

Two things. Firstly, the atmosphere is just so great! We have a lovely, lovely office and a collegial working environment. We all get on really well, which makes CleanCloud a fun, lively place to work. Secondly, you really see the value of your work and CleanCloud operates on a flat hierarchy. You can have a direct relationship with everyone in the office and be open about your concerns and successes. Additionally, if you have a cool idea there’s not a lot of bureaucracy. You’re encouraged to be entrepreneurial and push boundaries.

Do you have any advice for young, startup obsessed jobseekers when they’re just leaving school? What about people leaving University?

I would say don’t stress about it and feel pressured into going into something that you’re not interested in. Think about what you want to be and where you want to get to and find a startup that will take you to that point! If you decide to join a big, established company – pick one that will invest in you and take the time to teach you everything you need to know. I would say prioritise that above all else. I would also say prioritise a company where you feel valued.

And it’s ok not to know what you want to do! Try things out and see what interests you and what doesn’t. It was only after working for a startup that I realised I wanted to work at one and found my own one day. The startup road isn’t easy… but it’s incredibly rewarding.

Inspired by Luke and/or want to share your story? Email us at contact@workinstartups.com or reach out via Twitter – we’d love to hear from you!

Here at Work In Startups, we’re on a mission to champion the best and most exciting startups in the UK. To support this, we’re starting a new blog series highlighting some of the most innovative and fast-growing startups around. Follow us as we interview startup founders and employees across the country and find out more […]

Startup To Watch: CausaLens

Here at Work In Startups, we’re on a mission to champion the best and most exciting startups in the UK. To support this, we’re starting a new blog series highlighting some of the most innovative and fast-growing startups around. Follow us as we interview startup founders and employees across the country and find out more about their goals and ambitions, what the future holds and (for all you startup jobseekers out there looking for the inside scoop) what they look for in a prospective employee.

This week we’re interviewing Apostolos Lymperis, Business Growth Strategist at CausaLens – a London deeptech startup that leads causal AI research, which is a major step towards developing true AI. Their technology transforms organisations by autonomously discovering valuable insights that optimise business outcomes. Their flagship product, a Causality Infused AutoML for time-series, goes beyond both traditional machine learning and AutoML – it has become the industry standard in the financial sector and other industries.

What would you say CausaLens’s mission is?

Our startup mission is to develop Causal AI. We’re developing Artificial Intelligence that understands cause and effect and can solve the most challenging problems. For example, there are some challenging problems in financial markets and static AI models can’t really solve them. Traditional AI doesn’t properly work in dynamic, complicated systems like this.

What are your values as an ambitious startup?

One of our values is drive and resilience. In order to succeed as a growing startup, we need people that are willing to take the initiative and be bold. Our product is still developing, so we love it when people take ownership of tasks and drive innovation. We find that really happens when people are passionate about our mission and what we’re trying to achieve.

Another one of our company values is trust and accountability. When you care about what you’re doing and feel that you’re contributing to a great vision – you want to be accountable for what you’re doing. We want everyone to feel that we are attributing and making movements towards that vision!

Lastly, we want our startup employees to be kind and inspirational. We’re a small team, and kindness and trustworthiness are vital if we’re to feel comfortable around each other. We spend a lot of time together (and many nights!), so being able to feel comfortable and trust the people around us is super important. As for inspiration – we are doing a lot of hard work and need the people around us to continually inspire and contribute to the higher vision. Our product is driven by innovation, so it’s important that we are motivated and inspire each other.

What has your growth been like?

CausaLens was founded in 2017 by Darko Matovski and Maksim Sipos, and has been growing pretty rapidly since! Two years ago we were a team of 5 and now we’re a team of 20. In a year from now we’re looking to be 40-50, so we’re definitely a startup looking to hire!

We’ve also hit various milestones along the way. We’ve closed two major seed funding rounds (one of which was one of the biggest startup seed funding in Europe) and we’ve started working with some of the most sophisticated organisations in finance. Our client roster is growing day by day and it’s exciting to witness and be a part of. To add to the excitement, we’re moving to a cool new startup office in Hammersmith! This is necessary to support our growth.

What does 2020 hold in store for CausaLens?

We want to be the go-to place for causal AI. We also want to attract more top engineers and scientists as this will help us develop our product offering. If you’re a world class researcher that’s passionate about our mission – please do get in touch, we’d love to work with you.

Additionally, we want to cement ourselves as the industry standard in finance. We already have a very good reputation here and clients from all over the world, but we’re looking to grow our client base. As well as exploring this market further, we’re looking to diversify and bring value to other industries such as logistics and transportation. We have a few cool projects in the works, but they’re customer sensitive so I have to keep my lips sealed (for now)!

I would also say that our primary focus for startup hiring is London. We’re a tight-knit team and prefer having all of our engineers in one place – it’s easier to work through things this way and develop our product offering. However, in the long run I could definitely see us opening offices in other big financial sectors. This is still some way off, though!

What do you look for in an employee?

When hiring for our startup, we look for people that match our values and are excited about our vision of optimising the global economy. There are so many inefficiencies in the global economy and we want to eradicate (or at least reduce) these. If you embrace the value of our vision and are excited about the technologies we are building, then that’s a strong motivation for applying. Passion is, without a doubt, the most important thing!

We’re also growing extremely fast and as a result appreciate people that take initiative, are accountable and are driven. These are the people that bring huge value to CausaLens. How far we get is ultimately up to every individual that works here.

Additionally, we’re looking for people with scientific minds. Over 70% of our employees hold PhDs in quantitative fields, which should give you an indication of the technology we’re building and the employees we attract. Many of our engineers bring their research to our product and it has gotten better as a result. And if you’re not technically a developer but can still code as well, you’re a double threat! We don’t want to be a place where our research will be applied in 20 years, we want to build technology that can be applied now as this is where we can drive value.

We also look for people that are personable and friendly. We’re a tight-knit group (there are currently only 20 of us) and know each other really well. We often go out for drinks together and do things outside of work – so we look for people that want to get involved and become part of our startup family.

Do you have any advice for young people founding their own startup?

Be bold! And be ambitious. Founding your own startup takes a lot of time, patience and sleepless nights. It also requires you to make sacrifices. This is only really worth it if you’re building something that you’re passionate about and think can make a big impact. The VC world appreciates ingenuity and impactful ideas too, and is prepared to invest big in game changing technology.

So, set the bar high and make sure your startup idea contributes some greater idea/value to the world. Even if you fail (and 90% of startups do) it will be a great learning experience and you’ll cultivate resilience. You’ve got to adopt the mindset that the sky’s the limit and even if you don’t succeed – you’ll do your best!

Here at Work In Startups, we’re on a mission to champion the best and most exciting startups in the UK. To support this, we’re starting a new blog series highlighting some of the most innovative and fast-growing startups around. Follow us as we interview startup founders and employees across the country and find out more […]

Startup to Watch: IMMO Investment Technologies

Here at Work In Startups, we’re on a mission to champion the best and most exciting startups in the UK. To support this, we’re starting a new blog series highlighting some of the most innovative and fast-growing startups around. Follow us as we interview startup founders and employees across the country and find out more about their goals and ambitions, what the future holds and (for all you startup jobseekers out there looking for the inside scoop) what they look for in a prospective employee.

Great question. There are two aspects to the business. The first aspect is that we want to be your housing partner for life. From when you start university and are looking to rent a student house, to when you’re retired and looking to downsize – we want to be your housing partner throughout that whole lifecycle. Typically, when people first look to rent the whole process is pretty opaque. You have no idea what your prospective landlord is like or the condition (beyond the superficial) that your rental property is in. It’s a gamble, and we firmly believe that renting shouldn’t be like that. It’s the most money anyone spends out of their income every month, but there’s no reliability of the experience. We want to standardise the whole process and be the housing partner that people are looking for: providing you with high-quality properties and a responsive, professional landlord. We also want to help people that are selling their homes by breaking the chain! We’re a tech-enabled direct home buyer, which allows individuals to sell their property without worrying about the middlemen or uncertain buyers. We can take care of legal fees, provide a binding offer and work with sellers to agree upon a completion date that works for them – allowing them to focus on their next move!

The second aspect of the mission is that we’re opening up the world’s largest asset class: residential real estate. It’s worth over €30 trillion in Europe alone, with less than 1% of institutional exposure. A lot of commercial real estate is tradable and investable, but residential property isn’t and we want to change this. Most residential property is controlled by individual landlords and mom & pop businesses, and we want to make it more accessible to investors of all sizes, starting with institutional investors. Everyone should have the ability to invest and trade in residential property as easily as they can invest and trade in stocks! We want to make residential a truly liquid asset class.

What are your values as a startup employer?

A couple of things. We are fortunate to be attracting incredibly motivated and intelligent people that bring their unique experiences to IMMO, and looking to challenge the status quo in real estate. We’ve recently hired people from Uber, Amazon, WeWork, McKinsey and Google and they’ve added a lot of value to the startup team.

Beyond this, there are a few things that are important to us – the primary being “behave like a founder”. If you hire some of the smartest people around, you can’t be micromanaging them. You’ve got to give them enough of a canvas to paint on so that they make masterpieces! So we expect our employees to behave like startup founders, take ownership of big problems and go ahead and solve it themselves.

The second thing we have found to be important is integrity. We deliver on what we promise and we expect our employees to deliver on what they promise too: it works both ways and is key to keeping IMMO thriving.

This also flows very closely into a culture of being kind and caring. We care about our people’s personal health, as well as their professional health. We champion a flexible and open work environment and don’t place limits on how people want to operate. We trust them to take ownership of their job, hence the freedom we give them to work flexibly. The kind and caring attitude we adopt makes IMMO Investment Technologies feel like a family, which is exactly the kind of startup environment we are trying to build.

We also value people that are data and tech hungry. We’re passionate about data and going in depth into what is going on from a numbers perspective. Even if a decision seems subjective from the outset, we try and see if we can take a data-driven, objective approach. This is a culture you see across the organisation.

Lastly, we really value humility. It’s one of the most effective ways of leadership, especially within a high growth startup. You have to be humble and open to being wrong, as well as open to being challenged more! We’re building something that has never been built before – a new asset class of residential real estate – and know that innovation and the best ideas can come from any level of the organisation. As startup founders, we know we’re not perfect and we’re always open to new ideas.

Can you tell us a bit about your growth over the past few years? What’s next for IMMO Investment Technologies?

We have been around for two years and have really gone from strength to strength. Two years doesn’t seem like a long time, but in ‘tech startup life’ that’s close to 20 – that’s just how fast things are moving. Every month is very important in the lifespan of our company. It’s still Day One.

When we started out, it was 3-4 of us in a WeWork in Paddington – a standard startup office in amongst a sea of other ambitious tech startup founders. Now, we’re a team of 40+ and have just moved into a two floor office space in the BBC Studios in White City. At the beginning, it was just a few of us including Christian and Samantha – my co-founders – and we were aligned by one mission: transforming the residential property market. We’ve had investors on board since day one and our growth has been pretty crazy since!

When we started out we launched our operations in the UK, but Brexit affected business to a certain extent. Investors did not have a positive outlook on the UK market and financing conditions changed rapidly, this made us shift our operations and focus on Germany as the investor appetite was high. Given the Brexit cloud has cleared somewhat with investors showing interest again, we are considering reinvigorating our UK efforts this year, but for now we want to focus on building our German business out. Most of our team is based in London, as IMMO is clearly a pan-European play, with operational teams in Germany, and some data & investments run out of India.

We became operational in our first test market, Hamburg, a year and a half ago and we’re expanding into our second and third markets over the next few months. It’s an exciting time! We’re working with large institutional investors to launch in these markets. We have been generating tens of thousands of leads – AKA people looking to sell their property to us. We inspect their properties using a standardised inspection app, and make offers based on that view as well as geo-spatial & macro trends data, using a proprietary machine learning model. Thus far, we’ve carried out more than 2,000 inspections using a standardised app, and underwritten each asset with an automated financial model. Through doing this, we’ve developed a couple of multi-million pound portfolios: one €25m portfolio, another €35m one, and soon building a €200m one! There is limitless opportunity! And we’re seeing a lot of demand for a product like this, both on the consumer and investor side. So in the future expect to see us develop more portfolios and increase the size of existing portfolios.

As for our portfolio operations in the UK: we’re very bare-boned here at the moment but plan on switching UK to full-blast as soon as we sign on more investors. Germany and the UK will definitely be our prime focus for the foreseeable future. Both are such deep markets, ripe for tech disruption! Given how deep real estate is, we could (and hope to) build a billion dollar business in each city we operate in!

What do you look for in a startup employee?

We have just hired the head of recruitment from Uber. It’s a senior hire and they’re a really strong, experienced individual – which I believe reflects our belief that people mean everything. A startup company is hollow without having a strong focus on people growth and management, which is why we have high standards in terms of who we hire and how we help them grow.

We look for people with curiosity and hunger, that question why we are doing it this way and look to do it better. These are the people that add the most value to our startup team and really contribute to our success. If you can demonstrate that you are a naturally hungry person who goes deeper and tries to understand the why, why, why of everything – you’ll do well here! Natural curiosity takes people a long way!

We also look for people with analytical, structured thinking. Given that the value chain of the business is fairly long, we look for people that demonstrate taking a structured and analytical approach to work with the ability to build for 100x scale.

Additionally, we want people that can communicate and collaborate effectively. I would say the nature of our team structures is similar to those of Amazon and Uber. We work in dispersed teams and communicate across geographies and boundaries, and want people that can forge relationships across these boundaries. Prospective employees should know how much and when to communicate – this is vital!

Do you have any advice for those thinking about founding their own startup but currently unsure?

You have to have a certain degree of ambition and a desire to challenge the status quo. If you think this describes you, then I would recommend taking an exciting startup job within an existing team for a few years before you start your own. You learn so much and definitely adopt an entrepreneurial mindset from taking a tech startup from Series A to D (for example). I would argue the kind of learning you get on those growth curves is unparalleled, and will add a lot of value to how you build your own startup out.

Following this experience, if you are still determined to found your own startup, it will simultaneously be the most enriching and hardest experience of your life to date. Be ready to commit to it like you would commit to your own child – it really will consume most of your life. You’ve got to be prepared to make sacrifices in terms of your friendship circles and family. The startup journey is a hard one, people!

I would also say don’t be shy! Ask the best people that you encounter (whether on Linkedin or through your network etc.) for advice or to join your mission. This will prove invaluable when developing your business proposition. Additionally, I can’t stress enough how important conviction is. You need to be super convinced about your vision. If you are, you will find the same conviction in your family, friends, investors and Co-Founders – which will help you achieve your ultimate goal. You need to be able to sell your vision to them! You will also need that unwavering belief when the going gets tough.

And whatever you do, choose the right investors, particularly as an early stage startup. Money is tempting, but it’s vital that your tech investors understand your mindset and vision, and your relationship with them is one of trust, and reciprocity. They should offer you guidance and direction! We said no to strong tech investors – because we felt that they didn’t align with what we are trying to do. We are so lucky to have found incredible investors in Talis Capital, HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, Fintech Collective and Surplus capital and some of the best angels I’ve worked with, who support us every step of the way.

Here at Work In Startups, we’re on a mission to champion the best and most exciting startups in the UK. To support this, we’re starting a new blog series highlighting some of the most innovative and fast-growing startups around. Follow us as we interview startup founders and employees across the country and find out more […]

Startup to Watch: Commusoft

Here at Work In Startups, we’re on a mission to champion the best and most exciting startups in the UK. To support this, we’re starting a new blog series highlighting some of the most innovative and fast-growing startups around. Follow us as we interview startup founders and employees across the country and find out more about their goals and ambitions, what the future holds and (for all you startup jobseekers out there looking for the inside scoop) what they look for in a prospective employee.

This week, we’re interviewing Jason Morjaria, Founder of Commusoft, a cloud-based workforce management solution for field service companies of all sizes including plumbers, gas and heating engineers, electricians and oil technicians. Commusoft is growing quickly, rapidly hiring and helping field service companies improve their value proposition.

What would you say Commusoft’s mission is?

To educate and empower field service companies to provide world class customer journeys. Field service companies traditionally have a bit of a bad rap in terms of how people perceive them. For example, when you call a plumbing company, you often wonder whether the plumber will turn up on time and get the job done in a timely matter. We want to get rid of this stigma and encourage good companies to provide good customer journeys.

When you call up a business and book a service, you have a number of interactions with them. How do they treat you? What do they say over the phone? Do they let you book the service right there and then? Once you’ve booked the service, do you get a confirmation straight away? Do you get a reminder a few days before the service? Do you know for certain that they will turn up? What about when they will turn up? Do you know what they’re like when they’re on site? Do they wear dirty boots on your carpet? All of these interaction points amalgamate into an experience that you have with this field services company. We want to educate them on how to ensure every one of these touchpoints comes with a brilliant customer experience.

It doesn’t matter how much tech you provide a business, if they don’t know how to execute on it then they’re ultimately not going to improve their business proposition. If they don’t schedule specific time slots or send well-written emails, regardless of the tech they have access to, customers will have a negative journey and, therefore, a negative overall experience. So we focus on educating our clients, implementing our job management software and reviewing their accounts and content. We have a whole team dedicated to producing marketing content for our clients, whether this be video content, blog posts or articles. We want to help them get into the shoes of their customers and ask “does what we’re doing make sense? Can we change anything?”

What are your employee values?

Definitely going “above and beyond” for our clients. This is pretty evident in our inbound content. We had one company call up the other day and say “we know you’re not Sage, but they suck at answering the phone, is there anything you can do?”, which I think is testimony to the amount of support we give our clients. They genuinely believed we would go above and beyond for them – which we would! Another support email came in asking us to consult on how their website looked, which has nothing to do with our business but they trust us and believe we can make their business more successful.

We also strongly value learning! From all the interviews we’ve conducted, every person we spoke to said they wanted to learn more, and we have an open policy about that. For example, someone in our Client Services Team was asking about SQL. She didn’t really understand it and wanted to learn more, so I set aside one hour with her in a conference room, explained it to her, and gave her tips about how to learn it. We feel people with scaleup jobs should be actively encouraged to show interest outside of their roles, and firmly believe that what you learn here shouldn’t necessarily be tied to what you do. This is exemplified by the fact that we also run cooking lessons. Cooking is a basic, fundamental skill and vital to leading a happy and healthy life – so we want our employees to know how to cook and look after themselves. We also invest significantly in our employees’ professional development. We regularly pay for formal training and conferences, which are especially important given how quickly we’ve grown. We’re adding new layers of management every year and we really don’t like the idea of someone becoming an ‘accidental manager’. If they have just started managing a team, we want to make sure that they’re supported so we have consultants come in and teach them how to be managers. We’ve loosely done this forever, but it was when we wrote it down and thought about it properly that we realised how a few things that didn’t work three years ago can be attributed to people having insufficient training.

Additionally, we think employee wellness is extremely important and this is one of our core values. Lots of us go climbing together and many practise yoga regularly, however this isn’t what makes wellness one of our startup values. The fact that we invest in it is what makes it a core value: we pay for everyone’s gym membership, climbing or swimming, etc. We also give our employees the space to do activities: if they want to attend a yoga class in the morning and get in at 10, that’s completely ok, providing they’re adept at managing their own time and make up the hours elsewhere.

Can you tell us a bit about your growth over the past few years? What’s next for Commusoft?

I started Commusoft in 2006 while I was at Aston University but I began writing code well before then. I had been writing code with one field services client in mind and realised that there was a strong business case for the software I was developing. As part of my degree, I had to do a placement year, so I went to the business school and asked if I could run my own business during that year instead. No one had ever asked to do that before, so it was quite novel, but after giving it a lot of thought they agreed. It’s funny because since then they’ve actually started encouraging entrepreneurial activity!

I was meant to return for my final year after my ‘placement’ – but I never went back. By then I had taken on 30 clients and Commusoft was doing pretty well, so there didn’t really seem any point in returning. I met our CTO, Raj, in 2008 and we grew Commusoft steadily until about 2013 – by then we had a fairly large number of clients and were turning over a million a year. I would say we properly focused on Commusoft in 2011/2012 – that was the year we decided to completely rewrite our product base, which was expensive and arduous, but so, so worth it. We launched our re-written product in 2016 and our growth since then has been pretty astonishing: we’ve more than doubled in size to 54 talented startup employees, and we expect to add another 50% to head count this year. We also opened an office in Chicago last September – so have started expanding overseas. There’s so much potential to grow the business and we’re in a great position: bootstrapped and turning a profit!

As for what the future holds, we’re doing a couple of things. We’re firstly trying to align more of our team in one direction, which is especially important given the number of people that will join the company this year. We’re doing this by defining and redefining our mission and values.

We’re also looking to expand our US operations. It’s a new market and new team, so it’s a great learning opportunity – like building another new startup altogether, but bringing to bear the lessons we’ve learnt already. We’re trying to figure out how to best serve our US clients, and grow our client base. In the UK, our work in 2020 is all about scale. We’re looking to bring on as many new clients as possible and we’re seeing our product develop even further. We have companies that have grown with our business and don’t want them to outgrow us! As such, we’re reinvesting in engineering to make sure our product can grow and develop with our clients.

What do you look for in a prospective employee?

It entirely depends on the role. However, attitude is probably number one and this is really hard to gauge in an interview. When the interview is only an hour long, you have to glean as much as you can, but even then you might not get the full picture. I firmly believe that most people can be taught anything, providing they have the right attitude – so turn up enthusiastic, having done a lot of research into Commusoft – and you’ll do well here. However, I do think experience is fairly important as well. If you’re new to your career, or new to the natural demands of a startup job in general, you probably don’t know what you want yet, so it’s more ambiguous whether you will enjoy the role. For example, client services can be one of the toughest roles. You have to deal with clients all day, every day, and they can be quite difficult at times. If you have experience in this role, you’re more likely to enjoy it.

We also look for people that are personable. We do the classic litmus test of “could I stand to be stranded in an airport with you?” – if the answer is yes, then you’d be a good fit for Commusoft. Additionally, we really value diversity. Our leadership team is 50/50 men/women and our whole company is almost 50% female – something we’d recommend every startup (and in fact every company) try and pursue. We also have people from all over the world working in our office.

Do you have any advice for people thinking about founding their own startup but currently unsure?

I think if you’re starting out with the intention to ‘found your own startup’ – you’re already on the wrong foot. Startups are not glamorous and you really do get your hands dirty, especially in the beginning. I once had to delete 25,000 records one at a time to resolve a problem, which was laborious but necessary. There was no one else but me who could do it.

Because it’s not glamorous, you have to be passionate about what you’re doing. When I started out, I liked coding and the product. Commusoft was a project of sorts that I put time and effort into because I loved it. It was only after I had developed it a bit that I thought maybe other people would be interested in it. It became a business a few years later and the rest is history.

If you don’t love it, then it’s going to be tough to stick with it. The first few years can be really difficult and you’ll likely make little money. If I told you you were going to make £50 a week doing it for a year, would you still pursue it? If you can do something for free and love it, only then should you start it!

Here at Work In Startups, we’re on a mission to champion the best and most exciting startups in the UK. To support this, we’re starting a new blog series highlighting some of the most innovative and fast-growing startups around. Follow us as we interview startup founders and employees across the country and find out more […]

Startup to Watch: GoSweat

Here at Work In Startups, we’re on a mission to champion the best and most exciting startups in the UK. To support this, we’re starting a new blog series highlighting some of the most innovative and fast-growing startups around. Follow us as we interview startup founders and employees across the country and find out more about their goals and ambitions, what the future holds and (for all you startup jobseekers out there looking for the inside scoop) what they look for in a prospective employee.

This week, we’re interviewing Steph Newport-Booth, Co-Founder of GoSweat: a wellness benefit for companies that gives their employees the freedom to discover and book 1000s of fitness and wellbeing experiences. She describes it as “doing for fitness what Tripadvisor has done for travel or JustEats for takeaways”.

Hi Steph, what would you say GoSweat’s mission is?

To offer any activity, at any time, to anyone! When it comes to our own employees – we want to be able to offer them any experience that they want and support their physical health. We don’t want to offer them the standard ‘gym membership’ that most startup companies offer their employees. Instead, we want to give them the freedom and flexibility to do the classes that they enjoy and that support their physical and mental wellbeing. If they want to use Pure Gym or have physiotherapy – they can do this all through GoSweat. We’re the best company perk out there!

What are your values as a startup employer?

Commitment, collaboration, autonomy and fun! We work with companies, so success and growing the business really starts within our office and making it a comfortable, friendly and fun place to work.

Also, everyone that works here has a real commitment to our mission: getting people into fitness! We’re a start up that has a real drive, and the people who work here have a connection to sport and activities and want to share that with as many people as possible.

Myself and Alex, my Co-Founder, did the Aldi Area Manager Graduate Scheme and whilst we were very well paid, and it was clear that we were looked after financially, the benefits were very black and white. Both of us are passionate about fitness and well-being, so we were looking at employee perks like cheaper gym memberships etc. – and they weren’t that good and didn’t really meet our needs. We realised that this was the norm, across startups and bigger corporates! And when it comes to booking experiences, and fun sporting activities like boxing and climbing, there are so many barriers in terms of price.

The “go to” thing is to give your employees gym memberships, and this is very outdated. Employers get around 5.4% of actual engagement with this method. However with GoSweat, engagement jumps to 83%. That’s crazy different! This is because employees can book a range of things: high-board diving, massages, rock climbing – you name it.

How have you guys grown since GoSweat was founded in 2016?

It has been pretty crazy. Over the past few years, the GoSweat team has grown massively, as have the number of companies we work with. From a personal perspective, GoSweat doesn’t just feel like it’s my startup anymore: it belongs to everyone who uses it and works here. We all see where we are heading and we’re motivated to get there! We truly want to conquer the country!

Our growth in 2019 in particular was pretty astonishing. In January 2019, 8 of us were working out of a pretty small office. Now we’ve moved into a 35-50 people office and there are 15 of us! We’ve nearly doubled our workforce and hope to fill up our new office in 2020. And we think we can – the fitness industry is massive, there’s room for nimble startup operators like ourselves to disrupt things, and we have plenty of opportunity to chase down. There’s a lot of scope for us to grow.

What’s next for GoSweat in the UK and internationally?

We want to conquer the country! We’re launching in 12 new cities in the UK this year, and in 2021 we might go international. We essentially want to cover all the cities where companies want GoSweat and don’t have it. We also want to continue expanding the number of experiences we offer.

What do you look for in an employee?

We look for the kind of people that share our passion and enthusiasm for trying new things, however weird and wacky! For example, last night we all decided to go trampolining. It was last minute and spontaneous, but everyone was very keen and we had the best time. People can have amazing CVs and experience, but when you talk to them they’re not that interested in trying new experiences, which is kind of what our startup company stands for! We also want people that are energetic, outgoing and easy to get along with. You spend the majority of your time at work, so why not enjoy it?

What advice would you give to people thinking about founding their own company but currently unsure? What about people just leaving school/university?

The best advice I can give is to think about the best thing that could happen. Don’t focus on the worst that could happen. You’ve got to think positively about what you are doing and where you are going, and you’ve got to think that you can make the best case scenario happen! It’s especially important to have a positive mindset at the beginning, because things can get tough.

Also, don’t found a startup by yourself! It’s always good to go into it with a partner (or two!) that you know you can rely on. As I’ve said, the path to success is not always linear and being a founder can be quite tough. It’s invaluable having other people to share the load. But, as the saying goes: “too many chefs spoil the broth”! More than three startup founders can be a bit too much.

And don’t be afraid to bootstrap something together. We didn’t have any funding for the first two and a half years, so very much funnelled our own money into building GoSweat at the beginning. When we did get funding, however, it was invaluable. It gives you rocket fuel to expand and develop your product offering.

Here at Work In Startups, we’re on a mission to champion the best and most exciting startups in the UK. To support this, we’re starting a new blog series highlighting some of the most innovative and fast-growing startups around. Follow us as we interview startup founders and employees across the country and find out more […]

Startup To Watch: Pasta Evangelists

Here at Work In Startups, we’re on a mission to champion the best and most exciting startups in the UK. To support this, we’re starting a new blog series highlighting some of the most innovative and fast-growing startups around. Follow us as we interview startup founders and employees across the country and find out more about their goals and ambitions, what the future holds and (for all you startup jobseekers out there looking for the inside scoop) what they look for in a prospective employee.

This week, we’re interviewing Alessandro Savelli, MD and Founder of Pasta Evangelists: a company on a mission to become the authority in fresh pasta in the UK. Pasta Evangelists is growing quickly, hiring just as fast and radically disrupting the way we think about and consume pasta in the UK. Giles Coran and Prue Leith rank among its supporters.

Hi Alessandro, what would you say Pasta Evangelists’ mission is?

Our mission is to make the best possible fresh pasta and sauces in the UK, thereby becoming the authority in fresh pasta across multiple channels. We want to spread the joy of high-quality, fresh, hand-crafted pasta!

Can you tell us about your recent growth? What’s next for Pasta Evangelists?

The business has grown considerably over the past few years. We tripled revenues in 2019 and they grew tenfold the year before that. We’re one of the fastest growing startups in the UK and expect this to continue. In fact, we’re making sure of it by investing in our product, hiring new people and expanding our number of distribution channels.

Our three broadest priorities in 2020 are: 1) to improve our profitability, 2) to execute our concession business and 3) to improve our online business by focusing on online subscribers. With regard to the first priority, we are working hard to improve our margins and therefore, whilst top line growth remains key, it’s not our main focus in 2020. With regard to the second priority, given how pasta is purchased in the UK, we are looking to sell across a broader range of different channels this year. We have concession stands in Harrods and M&S and want to execute on these this year. There’s also a strong demand for our pasta on Ocado and Deliveroo, so we’re going to focus on growing these channels as well.

Beyond 2020, we see ourselves expanding globally. We’re currently trying to conquer the UK market, but Asia, Europe and America are also in our sights! We’re also going to stick to just making pasta: it’s in our name and it’s what we’re good at. We don’t want to diversify into other areas just yet!

What are your values as a startup employer?

We don’t have any formal ‘values’ per se but, ultimately, people are here to be treated fairly. We want to provide the people in the team with a lot of learning opportunities and we thrive when people take ownership of tasks and push for more responsibility. We’re a diverse startup team and encourage creativity, outside-of-the-box thinking and alternate perspectives as much as possible. We also reward people for hard work and dedication!

What’s great about working at Pasta Evangelists?

We give people a lot of responsibility early on, which is great for self-starters and people that want to get stuck in. We move quickly and also invest in the people in our startup team and provide a lot of learning opportunities. Working with pasta is also fun because it’s a great product. If you love food, you’ll be in heaven here!

What do you look for in an employee?

We look for people that are really interested in what we do. We hate generic applications! If you’re a massive foodie, have written about us or like our pasta – we would love to hear from you!

We’re also looking for people that have a lot of energy, work hard and are keen to learn. If you’re driven, motivated and ambitious – you’ll do well at Pasta Evangelists!

Do you have any advice for young co-founders thinking about starting their own company but currently unsure?

Move as quickly as possible. Things always take longer than anticipated so it’s good to think ahead and plan accordingly. Also, starting a business is a bit like going to war: you need allies and a good team. Don’t go to war by yourself – if you have a team, advisors, supporters, partners and co founders, your chances of success are likely to increase.

Also, do something in a category that you have a specific interest in, not just in a category where you see a business opportunity. When you found a start up, you’re tied to it for a long time and the hours are long, so it helps if you are passionate about what you do! You will also come across as more authentic and credible if you genuinely love what you do.

On a separate note, we have several open positions at the moment! So check them out and if nothing interests you but you think you could add value to Pasta Evangelists – send us an email! We’d love to hear from you.

You’re underpaid / under-incentivised Money is definitely not the be all and end all of life…. but who’s kidding, you’ve got bills to pay. Moreover, you deserve adequate compensation for all the hard work you’ve been putting in. It’s difficult to put your all into a job when you’re not being paid adequately or your […]

Time to Jump Ship? 5 Signs You Need to Leave Your Job (and join a Startup!)

You’re underpaid / under-incentivised

Money is definitely not the be all and end all of life…. but who’s kidding, you’ve got bills to pay. Moreover, you deserve adequate compensation for all the hard work you’ve been putting in. It’s difficult to put your all into a job when you’re not being paid adequately or your salary has stagnated, particularly when you think you deserve to be paid more (and if you’re not sure, it’s fairly easy to check!). Feeling like you’re underpaid relative to peers is clearly a pretty big motivation-killer. So if you find yourself in this situation and you can’t seem to resolve the conversation through an open conversation with your manager, then nobody will blame you for looking elsewhere. Hopefully your next job will meet your salary needs, or at least give you some stock / equity options if you join a progressive startup.

You’re not learning and developing

Your daily routine has become monotonous and, despite your very best efforts to get stuck in with interesting projects, you’re not really learning anything new. When this happens, it might be time to move on. If you feel stagnant, uninspired and unmotivated, look for opportunities that will help you grow and develop. This is especially important given the changing nature of the job market. In 25 years time, experts have estimated that around 47% of current jobs won’t exist, which suggests that humans will need to be more agile and adaptable than ever before. As such, it’s important to prioritise learning and development and move on from places that don’t support your growth. Jobs in startups, where you’ll often be forced to wear many hats, can certainly offer learning opportunities if you’re willing to make the move!

Negative Team Dynamics (NTD)

Some workplaces are incredibly toxic. Is your workplace characterised by politics, lack of accountability, aggression, competition and hostility? If so, then it might be time to move on. If you feel genuinely uncomfortable, left out and are sick and tired of the poisonous vibe… then it can be difficult to get out of bed in the morning and you might lose motivation and energy. In these instances, you should talk to the HR team before you make any rash decisions. If nothing is done to address the situation… it may be time to leave for somewhere more inclusive. Unfortunately startups can be just as prone to this as larger corporates, so do your research before you join a new team!

The Ship Is Sinking

Are you on the Titanic? Have you just hit an iceberg? If so, it may be time to pack up ship (pun intended) and take the first lifeboat out of there. If your company has been going through an extended period of poor performance, poor management and poor morale, it may be time for you to leave your job. Nothing’s worse than staying at a company that’s being driven into the ground and/or that you believe has terrible prospects. Jump ship while you can and join a team that more readily inspires you!

NB: most businesses (and especially ambitious startups!) go through difficult periods, so don’t just leave at the slightest whiff of trouble. Assess whether the situation is truly dire and go from there, even if it means just reaching out to your network and seeing what jobs are available.

You’re just generally unhappy in your job

Do you go to bed every night dreading getting up in the morning? Is Sunday evening the worst part of your week because you know you have 5 days of work ahead of you? If so, you should immediately start looking for a new job. At the end of the day, your health and happiness are the most important things. Period. If your job is making you genuinely unhappy and depressed, serious changes need to be made and you can’t be complacent. Perhaps try and get to the root of your unhappiness and see if your work can make adjustments to suit your needs. This is a great first step to explore whether the situation is salvageable – just don’t suffer in silence! And do remember, it’s important to reflect back on the positives of your previous employer when you start interviewing elsewhere and have to explain your move rationale – even if it’s really got you down, try and put a positive spin on your job as no hiring manager wants to hire in someone who seems overly negative!